Fuel composition for internal-combustion engines



Patented ay 27, 1924.

FUEL COMPOSITION FOR INTERNAL-COMBUSTION ENGDNES.

No Drawing. Application filed November 11, 1918, Serial No. 262,047.

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that we, GEORGE H. TABER and I'lARIIY Essnx, citizens of the United States, residing at Pittsburgh, in the county of Allegheny, State of Pennsylvania, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Fuel Compositions for Internal- Combustion Engines; and we do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable othersskilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

This invention relates to a new fuel composition for internal combustion engines which is available for use in place of gasolene and which ossesses distinguishing and characteristic a vantages in its use as compared with gasolene.v

The invention is based upon the discovery that when solvent naphtha and gasolene are combined and intermixed with each other these different ingredients blend and intermix to form a homogeneous mixture, and that the resulting mixture ofi'ers many advantages in its use in internal combustion engines, as compared with gasolene alone, or solvent naphtha alone. The new fuel composition enables the engine to operate in an improved manner and with materially increased flexibilityand with both increased power and increased thermal efficiency, while the engine still retains, in its operation, the characteristic advantagesv which are obtained when gasolene alone is used. An engine on the block will develop with this mixture much greater maximum power than with solvent naphtha alone, and slightly greater maximum power than with gasolenealone, while the power developed by an engine as measured in horse power hours per gallon is much greater than for vgasolene used alone. Road tests prove that automobiles using this mixture develop more horse power in climbing hills, and show greater flexibility than when using the constituents of this mixture separately.-

The-solvent naphtha which is utilized in the new fuel composition is a fraction of coal tar light oil.. Its boiling point limits vary somewhat but it seldom begins to distill below 135 C. and the distillation is usually completed below 190 C. It consists principally of xylenes together with ethyl benzol, mesitylene and analogous benzol derivatives. The solvent naphtha is Renewed August 27, 1921. Serial available as a by-product in the production of the more valuable benzol and toluol, and, preferably after the usual purification processes, is available for use in the new fuel composition of the present invention. The solvent naphtha which we have utilized to advantage in the new fuel composition distills completely between 140 C. and 180 C. I

The gasolene which is utilized in the new fuel composition is the familiar gasolene of commerce which varies somewhat in its composition, within well recognized limits.- A typical gasolene will thus contain constituents of boiling points ranging from about 70 to 200 C. and will have a specific gravity of about 0.727 at- 19 C. or about 62 Baum. We have used to advantage in the new composition, and for the purposes of comparison therewith, the gasolene knownas Good Gulf.

The proportions of the solvent naphtha and of the gasolene may vary considerably, for example, from thirty to ninety parts of the solvent naphtha, to from seventy to ten parts of the gasolene. Relatively larger proportions of the solvent naphtha can be used to advantage with gasolene rich in the more volatile constituents, such as casinghead gasolene, owing to the advantages possessed by such a mixture.

The gasolene of commerce contains a very considerable proportion of the more volatile constituents, and it is important that the gasolene when used alone, should contain a considerable proportion of such constituents, particularly where it also contains constituents of relatively high boiling point, in order. that it may act reliably in the starting and operation of the internal combustion engines at different temperatures and under varying conditions. The new fuel composition of the present invention contains a materially lessened and comparatively small amount "of these more volatile constituents, but the combined effects of the different ingredients is such that the new composition possesses equal and even in many respects materially improved properties and qualities so far as its utilization is concerned. That is to say,- even with the comparatively small amount of more volatile constituents, it still retains. the characteristic advantages of gasolene and even possesses improved qualities Which new fuel composition.

. t'ive tests in an automobile and its internal combustion engine, that it is possible to obtain materially increased power and a materially increased number of miles per gallon of fuel, with the new fuel composition, as compared with gasolene. For example, in 40 mile comparative tests in an eight cylinder automobile, conducted under like conditions of speed and of road traveled, it was found that a difi'e'rence of as much as 10% in the lesser amount of fuel required, and an increase of about 10% in the number of miles per gallon of fuel, was obtained in.

favor of. be new fuel composition as compared with gasolene. So also, with the new fuel composition, it was found possible to accelerate the machine from 3 miles per .hour to 25 miles per hour as compared with an acceleration of 3 miles per hour to 22 miles per seconds, and on the same stretch of road, when using gasolene.

It is found also that the internal combustion engine can be readily started coldon the new fuel composition and that the starting and operation of the engine did not require any adjustments of the carburetor from that commonly used for gasolene. In fact, the comparative tests above referred to were carried out with the carburetor set to the ideal adjustment for gasolene.

Comparative dynamometer tests, carried out with a stationary automobile engine, mounted for laborator tests, showed very material increases-in t e number of horsepower hours, er gallon of fuel, obtainable with the'new iel composition as compared with gasolene'; and these improved results were also accompanied by materially increased thermal efiiciencyin the case of the Thus both thepower obtained from a given amount of fuel, corresponding to the mileage per gallon of fuel in an automobile, and the thermal efficiency of the fuel, were materially increased in the case of' the new fuel composition, as compared with gasolene; and these results were obtained with carburetor adjustments set ideally for gasolene and kept unchanged for the new fuel compositions.

composition is thus adapted for use, and

*with materially improved results, in the same automobile engines now in use with gasoleneand without requiring any changing of the design of the engines or the carburetor adjustments.

Throttling-tests made with the six cylinhour, in a like time interval, 12

with its materially decrease The new fuel der engine of an automobile and with the new fuel composition of the present invention showed very remarkable results as compared with similar tests made with gasolene. With the new fuel composition it was found possible to run steadily onlevel stretches of road, and on high gear, at the remarkably low speed of one mile per hour; whereas the best that could be done with gasolene was 3 miles per hour under the same conditions. The new fuel composition, accordingly, very materially increases the flexibility in speed of, an internal'combustion engine, so that it is possible both to obtain very materially increased speed and power f1 cm the engine and also a very materially decreased speed due to throttling, as compared with gasolene, and without modification of the carburetor adjustment set for gasolene.

The increased flexibility in speed is one of the principal reasons given by manufacturers for complicating the engines of automobiles by increasing the number of cylinders; so that the increased flexibility in speed obtainable with the new fuel composition makes it possible to obtain with a lesser number ofengine cylinders, a flexibility such as it has heretofore been considered necessary to obtain by an increased number of cylinders.

It has been above pointed out that the new fuel composition retains the characteristicv advantages of gasolene, in that it is available for use the same as gasolene. Among these advantages, and in addition to its own characteristic advantages, it retains that of the easy starting properties of asolene, even amount of more volatile constituents. The solubility of these more volatile constituents inthe solvent'naphtha of the composition of the present invention, and the combined effect of these vmore volatile constituents and of the solvent naphtha in the composition, distinguish the new composition in this respect also from gasolene itself.

We claim:

1. A fuel compositionforinternal combustion engines consisting of gasoline and solvent naphthaof boilingv point between about 135 and 190 C.

tures.

GEURGE H. TABER. HARRY ESSEX. 

